Summit of Perfection

Few of these alchemical texts were directly heretical in any case. For example, Gerber, who was Jabir ibn Hayyan, wrote the world s oldest book on chemistry called Summa Perfectionis or Summit of Perfection. It is so incomprehensible that its author s name gave rise to the word gibberish. 

All metals are in a constant state of progression. By this I mean that Gold, the perfect metal, stands at the head, the summit of perfection, as it were, whilst... 

FIGURE 5.22. The BF4 -doped polypyrrole lattice and the distortion of the lattice during the migration of a dopant ion between two vacant sites. The sequence shows the environment of the dopant ion (a) in its perfect lattice site, (b) when the migrant BF4 is at its initial (or final) site in the defective lattice and (c) when the BF4 is at the summit of the highest energy barrier in Fig. 5.19(a). (Adapted from Ref 132 by permission of the publishers.)... 

To resolve an enigma, we must have a perfectly clear conception of the problem. There are many ways to the highest pinnacle of a mountain but those only can hope to reach it who keep the summit constantly in view. All our labour and all our efforts, if we strive to attain it through a morass, only serve to cover it more completely with mud our progress is impeded by difficulties of our own creation, and at last even the greatest strength must give way when so absolutely wasted. 

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